The secret maids turned on the bath water and showed Carolina a notebook with pajama designs. All were embarrassingly scanty to even glance at. She chose the most modest one among them.

“Lady, do you need a dress to change into tomorrow? The gentleman said he would cover all expenses.”

“No.”

“Then I’ll bring your worn dress when I bring breakfast tomorrow morning.”

As she received the maid’s assistance, Carolina mulled over Patrick’s words.

I’m not romantic enough to understand your feelings. Of course, I don’t have the luxury to be by your side.

But suddenly, why. Don’t overexert yourself, just wash up and rest comfortably.

Tomorrow morning when the princess comes out to the terrace… let’s discuss the details of the royal marriage.

Carolina was anxious, unable to be certain of Patrick’s heart, but she recalled his words in a jumbled order.

But what was he going to say at the end? With such a cold expression. Carolina felt her heart sink remembering that look.

Tomorrow morning…

‘He must have seen me kissing Patrick on the terrace. Tomorrow, he’ll be even more surprised. Because I’ll announce that we’re having a royal marriage.’

She seemed to have made up her mind as she rose from the bath. The maids dried her body and her pitch-black hair, combing it. They applied faint perfume to her smooth white skin and helped her into the nightgown.

They swiftly tidied up even the bathroom floor, then bowed politely and left.

Carolina slightly covered her deeply plunging neckline with trembling hands and opened the door to the terrace.

“Your Highness. Prince Patrick?”

She went out onto the terrace. He wasn’t in the chair where Patrick had been sitting. The candles in the three-tiered candlestick on the table flickered with her exhaled breath.

The scent of cigar lingered faintly in the air.

It was a scent of wet burning wood mixed with rich chocolate.

**

Clang.

To one who held a sword, the sword was life. Dropping it meant disqualification. It would take but an instant for the remaining sword to pierce the throat.

Eden knelt on his left knee.

“It was a splendid duel, Sir Calip.”

Calip also knelt on his left knee, facing Eden.

“I learned much. It was the best time.”

“Now please allow me to guard my lord’s wedding night.”

“Then, during the event, please allow me to guard your left side. I won’t take any prior action. You must have a long-cherished wish.”

“You’re persistent. As you wish.”

Calip stood up, saluted with his elbow to his forehead, then mounted his horse and rode to the entrance of Aster Palace.

Eden leaned against a poplar tree. He took out a cigar, cut the end with a portable knife, and lit it. Exhaling smoke with his breath, he looked up at the sky.

Stars poured down between scattered clouds.

It had been the best time for him too. Indeed, it was a sharp and strong sword befitting Karcik’s greatest swordsman.

‘The left side… would it be alright to give it up?’

For the first time in his life, Eden found someone he wanted to allow by his side.

You must have a long-cherished wish.

Calip was sharp and insightful.

There was… a long-cherished wish. Over a decade ago, Eden had already nurtured seeds of rebellion against Emperor Kazan in his heart.

At thirteen, from the moment he first saw Patricia singing while wielding a sword in the west tower of Tane Palace, Eden’s sword belonged to her.

When they learned that Patricia would go to observe the war wearing silver armor instead of Patrick, both Patrick and Eden were shocked. Their anger towards Emperor Kazan exploded uncontrollably.

Patrick told the emperor that the person in silver armor was not him but Patricia, and demanded to stop the war observation. The emperor laughed as if it were ridiculous.

Patrick harmed himself in front of the emperor.

Eden Patterson completed his apprenticeship and was knighted by Emperor Kazan. Though he swore as Patrick’s knight, during wartime he participated to guard Patricia’s side.

On a day of summer downpour, the empress passed away. The red plague that started in the Kingdom of Hartian spread to Tane. Patricia and the empress’s guard knight rode a carriage carrying the empress’s coffin to the Kingdom of Torun through the heavy rain.

Emperor Kazan started a war to attack the Kingdom of Hartian.

Reddish mercury sulfide, natural cinnabar from mercury ore.

Cinnabar, called living gold, was the Kingdom of Hartian’s only resource and precious material.

Empress Pamila, greedy for minerals, jewels, and gold, wanted the mountains of Hartian where cinnabar was buried.

She urged Emperor Kazan, saying it was the right time to swallow Hartian whole, which was devastated by the red plague.

Patricia, returning from the Kingdom of Torun, donned silver armor and joined the war before the wet horse’s mane could dry. The rain that had subsided since crossing the Hartian border intensified again.

In the pouring pitch-black rain, soldiers infected with the red plague fell one after another. Emperor Kazan’s order to retreat came down. Patricia, her squad of soldiers, and Eden who hadn’t received the retreat order remained at the Hartian front line.

The Hartian soldiers attacked, throwing away their lives. They attacked the white horse carrying the Tane crown prince in silver armor with iron maces on chains.

When Eden, Patricia, and the squad soldiers who had been struggling desperately managed to break away from the Hartian front line and rejoin the army camp after half a day, they were on the verge of collapse.

Before they could even remove their armor soaked with rainwater, Emperor Kazan decided to intervene in the civil war that broke out in the neighboring Kingdom of Marcus. When they arrived in the Kingdom of Marcus after half a day’s ride, white steam rose from their armor.

The crown prince of Marcus had joined mercenary Hun hunters. An arrow shot by a Hun hunter pierced the neck of the white horse in silver armor.

The white horse, hit by the poisoned arrow, reared up wildly. The helmet of the silver armor came off.

The silver armor fell from the horse.

“The crown prince of Tane has fallen.”

Blood gushed from the white horse’s neck. Soon, the bloody water splattered and pooled in the puddles muddied by rainwater.

It happened in an instant before Eden’s and Emperor Kazan’s eyes. They spurred their horses.

A Hun hunter walked towards the fallen crown prince, aiming with a drawn bowstring.

“Patricia!”

The emperor drove his massive warhorse, trampling right over Patricia’s body in silver armor lying in the bloody puddle. Eden swung his sword. He cut off the hunter’s arm.

Eden chased after the emperor as if to stab him in the back, but turned his horse at the sound of clashing blades behind him.

An enemy cavalry soldier swung his sword at the crown prince barely standing in the mud. Eden rode furiously, his eyes blazing.

He thrust his sword into the enemy soldier’s shoulder like a lightning strike. Dark red blood splattered all over the silver armor.

At that moment, to Eden Patterson, Kazan was no longer the sun emperor of the empire to be served, but a madman to be eliminated.

After that war, Eden refused to be assigned his position. Only the right rear of the silver armor was his place.

He missed just once, in the Karcik war.

When they pushed into the foothills of Mount Victoire, Eden said they should return to the Red Forest camp of Panaho and wait for the rear guard, but Patricia predicted the rear guard would not come.

In the end, they met the Karcik emperor in the Tamil Valley.

Like an arrow shot from behind, you met your destined match, my eternal princess.

As Eden was about to light his extinguished cigar, there was a rustling sound. Eden grasped his sword and looked towards the sound.

A lady in a purple dress came staggering. Eden hesitated whether to approach. Just then, she collapsed into the grass with a thud.

Eden approached the lady, thinking there shouldn’t be any unfortunate incidents at Aster Palace. He silently lifted her and shook her shoulders.

She briefly opened her eyes, then closed them and her head fell back limply. Eden put his ear to her chest, but her breathing was even and calm.

He carried her to his horse tied in the poplar grove and mounted.

Avoiding the main garden and square where excited imperial citizens were drinking and singing merrily, he rode through the forest path from Aster Palace to Notos Palace in the south.

The servants of Notos Palace said they would go help at the Helios Hall and the Karcik main palace’s grand banquet hall until dawn tomorrow.

Eden pondered as he passed the statue of Minerva.

Using a guest room would leave traces. He entered his own guest room and laid her down in the bedroom.

After lighting a three-tiered candelabra, he examined her face closely.

‘She doesn’t look ill, just fainted?’

From her luxurious dress and ornate accessories, she was clearly a noble lady.

She looked somewhat familiar, but noble ladies all looked similar wrapped in fancy dresses and fans. He hadn’t paid much attention. But why did she come here alone without maids or servants?

“Mmh.”

As Eden was about to leave the bedroom, she stirred. Her head bumped against the headboard. The tiara on her head made a clacking sound as it hit the wood. Eden approached to check her head.

“My lady, I’ll remove your tiara.”

Eden managed to find the complex tiara clasp using just his fingertips and carefully removed it, placing it on the table.

“Thirsty, I’m thirsty.”

Eden poured a glass of water from the minibar, lifted her to lean on his shoulder, and held the glass to her lips.

Even in her sleep, she seemed thirsty and drank the water well. Eden carefully lowered his arm. As he laid her on the bed, water trickled down the side of her mouth.

Before Eden’s hand could reach her lips, she raised her body and pulled at his neck.

“Ha, Har.”

Flustered, Eden firmly grasped her slender arms and shook them.

“Look here, come to your senses, my lady.”

She tried to embrace his neck again, but when Eden avoided it, she rested her face on his firm chest.

“Ha, Harchen. You’re the only one for me, truly.”

For a moment, Eden’s red eyes flashed.

“Harchen?”

Eden pushed her away and laid her on the bed. Only then did he understand. The reason she came alone to Aster Palace without maids and fainted.

‘She was the emperor’s woman. To leave such a woman… Emperor.’

Eden had gritted his teeth when he first heard the news of Patricia’s royal marriage. He worried anxiously about how to deal with Patricia, who started a war as Tane’s shadow princess, not even an official princess. But surprisingly, Patrick believed in the enemy emperor’s character.

*Don’t worry, Eden. If it’s Harchen, he’ll be courteous.*

It seemed like an offhand remark, and Eden’s anger rose towards Patrick too.

Not long after, a court physician and an old Hun woman secretly came to the west tower, saying they received orders from the Karcik emperor. They examined Patrick and used an antidote to remove the poison, and he visibly recovered.

When they arrived in Karcik, Eden was uneasy about the emperor’s tall stature and handsome appearance.

He thought someone who lacked nothing under heaven and had aesthetic looks on top would be arrogant, but instead the emperor showed jealousy towards Patrick and himself. That jealous appearance put Eden at ease and even made him grateful.

But you had a woman, Emperor. Harchen Berk! On the day you make my lord, the princess, cry. Emperor or not, you’ll die by my sword.

Eden glared at the woman with pitch-black hair, grinding his teeth.